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Rich Capparela’s Caroling Party Check List

Posted by Rich Capparela · 12/12/2016 8:00:05 AM

So you’ve decided to go for a real, honest-to-goodness caroling party this year. Good for you. Very retro. Also warm and fun. My wife Marcia taught me a few things about how it should go. I have studied at her feet and this is what I have learned, beyond the fact that technically a carol party, in Marcia’s words, means going out with coats and scarves and trying to find someone home to sing to. Perhaps you could call yours a Holiday Sing.

Create a bunch of Song Books with clearly numbered pages. Include many more carols/songs/hymns than you have time for. Put the pages in one of those thin plastic 3 hole folders/binders.

Book a pianist in the house who can sight read. The pianist can be the one who tells everyone “Page 15. We Three Kings” and asks for requests out of the book.

Start with the sacred stuff.

Choose groups or two or three for some of the more lugubrious verses of the sacred stuff. Feel free to tell people as you are about to sing “We Three Kings” the following: “We’re skipping verse three about ‘Sorrow, sighing, bleeding, dying, Sealed in a stone-cold tomb,’ Okay?”

After fewer than a dozen of the serious stuff, move on to the lighter secular songs.

Have a bunch of little bells handy for Jingle Bells. Everyone should have them.

For your big close, the ultimate audience participation song. Pre-print ten of the 12 verses of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” (Everyone sings 5 Gold(en) Rings and the Partridge verses.) Cut the verses into cute little strips and put them, folded, in a bowl. Have people reach their hand into the bowl and randomly pull a verse. Depending on the crowd size, each verse gets one, two or three voices. Depending on how thoroughly the eggnog was spiked, expect people to miss their entries. Repeatedly. And for goodness sake, decide whether it’s “Five golden rings” or “Five gold rings.”

Have someone with a guitar play and sing Jingle Bell Rock. That’ll be everyone’s cue to go back and hit the eggnog again.

Happy caroling and all the best this holiday season!

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Rich Capparela

n 1972 an employment counselor asked Rich Capparela, "If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?" Without hesitation he replied, "A classical music radio announcer!" Today Rich is one of the best-known classical music radio personalities in the United States.

Capparela announces concert broadcasts in Southern California for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and the New West Symphony. His recording company, Cardiff Studios, produces commercials and programming for U.S. arts organizations, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

The July 1998 "Best of L.A." edition of Los Angeles Reader chose Capparela as "The Best Classical D.J. in Los Angeles." In December of 1998 Rich debuted at Carnegie Hall as a narrator in a performance of Benjamin Britten's World of the Spirit. In November of 1999 he made his first appearance with the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart, narrating The Night Before Christmas. Beginning in 1998 Rich became a member of the annual Grammy Awards screening committee for classical music. In 2001 he voiced the theatrical trailer for the Rachel Griffiths film Amy and portrayed the Emperor of China in the 26-week animation series Flutemaster, which began airing throughout the United States in 2003. In December of 2001 as part of Los Angeles Music Week Capparela was honored in chamber by the Los Angeles City Council for his contributions to the city's music community. In 2002 Capparela provided program notes for LAGQ: Latin, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's debut album for the Telarc label. The album received a Grammy Nomination in the "Best Crossover Album" category. Rich continued his association with the Grammys in February of 2004 when he presented the year's classical Grammys in Los Angeles.

One of Rich's secret passions has reemerged within the past few years. He is once again active as a lead singer and guitarist with a four-piece cover rock band, Otherwise Normal. His other interests include the deep blue sea. He's been a scuba instructor and has conducted tours to the Caribbean and the Fiji Islands. He's also tried his hand at skydiving. Rich and his wife Marcia, a private school administrator, live in Santa Monica, California.